Bridges Out of Time, Alternate Five Earths All in a Row
One of the possible alternates of the Five Earths setting involves the Earths being connected by all having portals to a few interconnected 'Lost World' style pocket dimensions (newly discovered or newly appearing on the Modern Earth), and running into each other that way. If any of you have read GURPS Big Lizzie, something similar to that is one of the bridging dimensions. It would have been more of a slow start, since there wouldn't have been anything obvious like new Earth appearing in the sky, just unexpected creatures and people appearing out of caves and such (if the 2013-German police arrested a group of armed men dressed as Waffen-SS troops, they wouldn't be immediately inclined to believe that these Nazis were from another dimension, after all). One of the portals/bridging dimensions might have been between instances of Earth's Moon, though. The various Earths would have probably differed in various ways: *Fantasy Earth might have been the biggest bridging dimension, rather than one of the Earths, or several bridging dimensions would have served the same narrative purpose. Alternatively, it might have been set much earlier or much later. *Clockpunk Earth might have been a few decades earlier or later, and may have been merged with Fantasy Earth. *Steampunk Earth, circa 1876: Had an earlier and more mysterious point of divergence - no Haversham's, just people developing abilities that were rare or non-existent previously, starting around 1795. Charles Babbage built an early Difference Engine in 1807, and sold a Mechanical Tabulator to the Royal Artillery in 1809. An early clank was presented to Emperor Napoleon I in 1812. Clanks grew sufficiently widespread that by the 1850s, it was generally agreed that slavery was unsustainable, and the constitutional amendment that ended it was passed in 1860, with slavery becoming illegal in all US states and territories by 1869. *Dieselpunk Earth, circa 1939: (possibly fewer superheroes/supervillains, more Pulp heroes/villains; possible political differences) PLACEHOLDER *Infopunk Earth, circa 2012: It would have started out the same, but evolved differently after the portals became accessible (much less money and other resources spent on space travel, for example, due to much-reduced perceived need). *Cyberpunk Earth, circa 2027: might have been on the list, probably being a partially After the End sort of setting, where WWIII occurred, but but only destroyed civilization in a few areas. Elements of GURPS Cyberworld would likely be included, and aspects of Cthulhupunk might have been. For those who follow GURPS Infinite Worlds, the current date on Cyp-Earth is the same as on Homeline and Centrum. Bridging Dimensions * "Big Lizzie" pocket: Similar to the version in the book, but not identical. The beings that created it are unknown, and no-one who has encountered them will appear. * Father Eamond MacDermod is a missionary from Clockpunk Earth who has befriended a tribe of Aztec exiles, who have converted to Catholicism; he has no control over the pocket dimension, beyond helping build a guardpost in the cave that leads to it from Clp-Earth. If you want to use the map from the book, the bit labeled '17 Link Point' is where the connection to Clp-Earth is. On Clp-Earth, it's a largish cave, about seventeen feet wide and a bit under six feet tall for a lot of its length, a few miles west of the exiles' village, within what on our earth would later be Arizona (the exiles traveled pretty far). * On Steampunk Earth, the portal is in the Arizona Territory, some distance south of the small town of Nobles. The portal appears to be a hole in the ground, where the desert slopes downwards and leads through a cave (the outlaws who accidentally discovered it were in a hurry, and since they could see sunlight ahead of them, they pressed on, not realizing that there was a problem until they were in the water); the cave is fairly tall, enough that a man on a horse would be unable to brush the ceiling with his fingers, and is wide enough for three men on horses to ride abreast without crowding. On the pocket dimension's side, the portal is on a very small island/islet, and opens into the sea (at the point labeled '1 In the Ocean' on the map). * On Infopunk Earth, the portal is in a cave between Bagdad, AZ, and the Upper Burro Creek Wilderness. The cave is fairly large, enough for some dinosaurs to get through, but has water up to three feet deep in places. Within the bridging dimension, the cave opens into a bend in the river upstream of '9 Lizzie.' For those who don't have the book, '1' and '17' are at opposite ends of the main 'lost world' island, but '9' is in the middle of it. *Underdark pocket: (cave complex, dwarves, drow, kobolds, driders, et cetra; some apparent 'surface' regions> PLACEHOLDER Connects Dsp-Germany & Inp-Germany (portals close to each other, both on the periphery of areas that are controlled by the various 'natives'), maybe others. *British pocket: connects PLACEHOLDER *Skull Island pocket: connects Dsp-South Pacific with Inp-South Pacific. Cyp-South Pacific connection opens later. *Nile pocket: connects Dsp-Earth with Stp EarthPLACEHOLDER *Lunar pocket: connects Dsp-Luna with PLACEHOLDER *(unspecified) pocket: connects PLACEHOLDER Vague timeline *December 21, 2012: Though nothing is noticed at the time beyond odd magnetic anomalies and minor seismographic readings, gateways to several pocket dimensions open on Modern Earth. Some atmospheric exchange occurs, spirits begin to explore, but not much else. *December (date), 2012: Satellite finds new pair of small islands w/ misty channel between them in South Pacific. *December (date), 2012: Archeopterix filmed on Modern Earth, believed to be a hoax. *(date), 2013: 'Mutant chicken' captured on Infopunk Earth, found to be velociraptor. *(date), 2013: Infopunk Earth expedition begins exploring 'Big Lizzie' pocket. *(date) 2013: Events of 'GURPS Big Lizzie' adventure begin on Steampunk Earth. *(date) 2013: Waffen-SS explore Underdark pocket, find portal to modern Germany; due to clothing and attitude, they are arrested (possibly GSG 9 called in for that, as they're going to resist); some escape back to portal, report up chain of command Category:Fan Settings Category:Fanwork Category:Infinite Worlds